Obedience Is No Fun!

Ok, that's not true.  It can be lots of fun, but it's easy to get stuck in a cycle of being nervous to start with at a trial, my dog being stressed and distracted, making me more stressed, making her more stressed, and so on and so forth.  That downward spiral makes it really hard to enjoy anything. 

So if you haven't figured it out yet, Gidget and I just got back from an obedience trial where we did not qualify.  Good things: Gidget was a rockstar for her stand for exam as usual and her stays were perfect which is really a good thing because that's where we've been losing our Q in the past (this was only our 4th trial so that's not saying much).  Bad things: heeling, and there's a lot of heeling in an obedience trial!  Gidget also got up and followed me when I left for our recall.

Gidget was very laggy and distracted for our heeling.  It didn't help that there was a collie practicing in the ring next to us.  I'm pretty sure she thinks every collie is her Uncle Slammer.  Her heeling has gotten worse each trial since our one Q (again, not many trials but still not a good pattern).  I don't know what to do.  We need help!

Her recall was a bummer.  The judge said she anticipated the recall.  I don't think so.  When I turned around she was moving towards me while looking back over her shoulder.  Something, probably the practice ring, was stressing her out enough for her to get up and follow me.  She's anticipated before, she just stands up, maybe takes a few steps, but for the most part holds her wait without looking stressed, just excited to come running to me.

The judge kept saying, "Don't let them get away with lagging in the ring."  Not a line of thinking I like.  That'd be like telling a student that they won't get away with forgetting a line in a play or speech because they're nervous.  My dog is stressed and distracted, not trying to get away with anything.  We need more practice around stress and distractions and help in working through our heeling issues.  We did go to the walk thru the day before, but that didn't seem to help enough this time.

The other thing I find very frustrating is all the dogs with choke collars that do well.  I hate seeing these dogs corrected with a yank of the leash (in practice, not in the trial itself obviously).  Then the teams that train this way (and there are a lot of them) do way better than Gidget and I.  Most of these teams also have way more experience than us too, but it's still frustrating.  I hate to have Gidget and I be a bad example for positive training.  Thankfully I know other positive teams that do well.  I don't get to see them at trials often enough, but it's good to have others to be inspired by.

Thankfully our next chance to do an AKC trial isn't until Sept.  We have lots of time to figure out a new plan.  Until we're doing better I think I'll keep us at the two locations that have less ring distraction too.  I will enter her in the CDSP trial in July, should be a good test of how we're doing plus treats in the ring!

So the plan: get Gidget into a weekly obedience class and maybe seek out classes at other locations in hopes that we can work through stress and distractions at new locations, plus get the eyes of different instructors for different ideas of what might work for us.  Just have to be careful not to take on too many new ideas.  Also, try Rally with Gidget.  Something fun and different for her.  I want to start obedience with Gracie ASAP too.  Now, can I do all this without overloading myself?  We'll see.  Happy... er... working on happier obedience!